Themes in the reporting of the Cronulla riots

• Introduction
• Theme 1 - "Un-Australian"
• Theme 2 – White right
• Theme 3 – Retaliation
   
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Theme 3 – Retaliation

The first reports of retaliatory attacks by young men from the Lebanese, Arab and Muslim communities formed front-page news in articles across the three outlets on December 12, the day after the riots. The Australian reported revenge attacks by gangs of youths identified by police as being of Middle Eastern descent, and described the incidents as “retaliation by members of Sydney’s Muslim community”. The SMH identified the incidents as “racial violence … in apparent retaliation” for the targeting of Lebanese and Middle Eastern people during the riots. The article noted that an Australian flag had been removed from a hotel in Brighton-le-Sands, but it was unclear whether this was done to decrease the tensions or as an act of retaliation. The brief page 1 coverage in the Daily Telegraph directed readers to three further articles covering the retaliatory attacks. The reports described “youths of Middle Eastern descent swarm[ing]” Maroubra, causing property damage and attacking residents caught on the streets. One resident reported that “there were about 50 of them running down the street, chanting in Arabic”. Another brief article reported that “several men of Middle-Eastern descent” had stolen and burnt the Australian flag from an RSL club in Brighton-le-Sands. A third short report detailed the reaction from young men attacked by the rioters at the beach. While one threatened to “gather as many people as I can. I am going to send text messages … heads are going to roll and blood will spill …”, a second man lamented the day’s events, saying “no one owns the beach”.

By December 13, the coverage of the retaliatory attacks was much more extensive across the three outlets. In two front-page articles, The Australian reported that the city “exploded into a second night of race warfare as tensions between rival ethnic gangs escalated into … revenge attacks on white Australian males …” Police stopped and detained carloads of young men travelling into Cronulla after gathering outside the Lakemba mosque. One Cronulla resident reported that the men drove through the suburb “hurling abuse at the residents… yelling ‘slut’ and ‘Aussie slags’”. Other residents revealed that young men armed with bats and guns had rampaged through the streets smashing cars and windows. One report stated that the attacks were sparked by “a series of text messages urging revenge attacks”. A more detailed article on page 4 reported on the use of text messaging to gather “tribes in the race war” as the retaliation continued. One message being circulated congratulated the rioters for “the effort we put in at ’nulla” and urged people to gather again the next weekend. Other messages circulated a call to arms among the Arab and Lebanese communities: “the aussies will feel the full force of the arabs as one … let’s show them who’s boss…”; “wake up oh lions of Lebanon, retaliate, take action … together exterminate the enemy at Cronulla”. One of the victims attacked by the mob at Cronulla warned that “there’s more retaliation to come [but] not by me, I’m not a troublemaking type”. He revealed that one Aussie among the crowd had tried to protect him from his attackers, explaining “you know, there’s good and bad in every nationality”. The SMH carried three page 1 articles detailing the retaliatory attacks by “Middle Eastern mobs” who “invaded Cronulla and Brighton-le-Sands to launch revenge attacks …”. Young Muslims gathered at the Lakemba mosque told reporters they were there to protect it from a “threatened attack … by ... the ’Bra Boys”, a Maroubra surf gang. Reporters were also threatened by members of the crowd who felt that “the media had stirred up all the trouble”. A brief report described the plight of Mr Singh, a Sikh Australian who owned a Cronulla convenience store. He said masked men had stopped their convoy of cars outside his store, intent upon destruction, but were turned back by the timely arrival of police. He revealed that he was also abused by people who believed he was an Arab because of his beard. A page 5 article provided details of the police taskforce established to identify and arrest the rioters and revealed that police would target “convoys of cars containing youths from suburbs with large populations of Middle Eastern descent”. This article also reported the stabbings of two people in “retaliatory attacks by gangs of Middle Eastern youths”. The Daily Telegraph carried page 1 coverage of the retaliatory attacks, describing the text messages “calling on young Arabs to start another round of attacks at Cronulla” and reporting that “more than 400 youths of Middle Eastern descent … rioted at Lakemba mosque” drawn by reports that Caucasian men were filming people as they entered. A more detailed article described the attacks by “hordes of Muslim youths … [who] descended on Sydney’s beaches”. Despite the roadblocks and numerous arrests, police received reports of assaults, property damage and gunshots from Cronulla residents. The reports carried extensive details from locals who had witnessed the violence, including one woman hit with a baseball bat by a young man who “smashed me and kept running … he said ‘this is our country too’ and he was gone”.

By December 14, media outlets were reporting attacks on churches and religious schools. The Australian’s page 1 coverage concentrated on the police response to the ongoing violence, and the response from Muslim community leaders, who warned that the events could radicalise some alienated young men. A second article described a warning from Cardinal George Pell to “Middle Eastern gangs” not to target Christmas celebrations following an incident in which gunshots were fired at cars outside a carols evening at a Catholic primary school. The attack was “apparently motivated by religious intolerance” in which Lebanese Muslims targeted Lebanese Christians. The article reported that “this was the first case of an attack on religious, rather than ethnic, grounds”. Another article revealed that a surf lifesaving carnival scheduled for North Cronulla beach had been cancelled because of fears of retaliatory violence. The Daily Telegraph reported the attack on the carols evening in a short article quoting Cardinal Pell’s condemnation of the attack on the school. Another article reported that Cronulla residents were fleeing the suburb because of the continuing violence, or barricading themselves in their homes. A brief article on page 19 reported that police were deploying extra officers to Terrigal beach in response to a new text message calling on Aussies to “fight for the Central Coast”. The SMH carried only one article that detailed the retaliatory attacks in Cronulla and Maroubra on Sunday and Monday nights, with residents describing the violence they witnessed from their windows and balconies.

On December 15, The Australian carried a page 1 report that four churches had been attacked in the previous days, resulting in a call from Arab Christian and Muslim community leaders to keep Lebanese youths under curfew over the coming weekend. The reporting noted that the Cronulla riots had provided a uniting point for Christian and Muslim Lebanese youths, while some Lebanese Christian community leaders felt the attacks were intended to shame Lebanese Christians into taking the side of Muslims against their common white Aussie “enemy”. NSW Premier Morris Iemma advised people confronted by Lebanese gangs to tell them they were Australian even if it meant risking violence. The Daily Telegraph carried three articles reporting on the retaliatory attacks. One focused on the church attacks, detailing the police deployment, while the second reported the call by the Muslim Women’s Association for parents to enforce a curfew on their children to stem the ongoing violence. The final article described the effect the riots and ongoing attacks were having on businesses in the Cronulla area, with owners and managers reporting staff lay-offs because of the dramatic drop in customer numbers. The SMH again limited its reporting on the retaliations to the suffering of Cronulla residents, detailing one family whose “beautiful beach life [was] robbed of innocence”. The Australian carried the only report, on December 16, of attacks against Muslim women, who contacted Arabic talkback radio programs to report numerous incidents in which they had been abused, spat upon and had their veils torn off. The coverage in the weekend editions focused on the extra police deployed to the city’s beachfront and surrounding suburbs to deter any further outbreaks of violence.

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